Designing fascism

The evolution of a neo-Nazi punk aesthetic

Bibliographic Data

ID21873124
AuthorsAna Raposo (0000-0002-3885-3012, ESAD College of Art and Design), Russ Bestley (0000-0002-5262-219X, The London College)
Year2020
Volume9
Issue3
Pages467-498
Publication date2020-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePunk & Post Punk (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2044-1983 • E-ISSN: 2044-3706
PublisherIntellect (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1386/punk_00039_1
OpenAlexW3035929968
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited6

This article explores the design strategies of four record labels associated with the growth of an explicitly far-right sub-genre of punk in the United Kingdom between 1979 and the early 2000s: Rock-O-Rama Records, White Noise Records, Rebelles Européens and ISD Records. While Rock-O-Rama saw the inclusion of the genre as simply an extension of their existing business model, the other labels were established specifically to support the activities of a small number of explicitly far-right groups who were blacklisted by mainstream producers and distributors within the music industry. These labels were also able to develop independent, do-it-yourself approaches to marketing, promotion and distribution that bear striking similarity to other sub-genres of punk and post-punk in the United Kingdom and Europe, particularly the politically activist hardcore and anarcho-punk scenes. Earlier examples of record covers that employed ambiguous visual metaphors to evoke a mythical Aryan identity were eventually superseded by the emergence of a more extreme form of visual communication that utilized overtly racist images alongside symbols with specific coded meanings to demonstrate a commitment to the white nationalist cause. These visual strategies were to become more explicit as far-right punk scenes moved to embrace fascist ideologies in the 1990s and beyond, as connotations of brotherhood, persecution, endurance, Norse mythology and the nation eventually gave way to direct calls-to-arms and pledges of allegiance with White Power and neo-Nazi terrorist groups

Aesthetics · Allegiance · Art · Art history · Ideology · Literature · Mainstream · Media studies · Nationalism · Nazism · Political science · Politics · Punk · Sociology · Cinema and Media Studies · Diverse Musicological Studies · History · Law · Music History and Culture

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